Md. Abusalah Sakender

Abstract

Women in Ibn Battuta's Account

Ibn Battuta's account Rihla is a social register of the medieval Muslim world. Through this account as a traveler, Ibn Battuta notifies the socio-cultural, religious, and political life as well as the condition of medieval Muslim civilization. For this reason, as an imperative actor of medieval Muslim civilization women got a vital position in Ibn Battuta's account. More precisely, Ibn Battuta describes the social and cultural role of women in his time that he observed during his travel across the Muslim world. Additionally, he shared his experiences in dealing with women as a husband or master. These descriptions raise the questions: what was the role of women in the society and state of the Muslim world in the middle ages? Did women enjoy freedom? And/or what was the attitude of medieval Muslim society including the political and religious institutions to women? Or how the socio-political and religious institutions deal with women at Ibn Battuta's time? In this paper, I may search the social, cultural, and economic role of women including their social status, economic condition along with the level of enjoying freedom in the Muslim world by answering the questions above. The purpose of this study is to draw a historical picture of women in the medieval Muslim civilization through analyzing Ibn Battuta’s account.